Second Thoughts

The railway strike was broken. Before he went to Capitol Hill to ask, dramatically, for his strikebreaking measures, Harry Truman was reasonably sure that he had won the railway war. But the baffling civil war was not won. There was still John Lewis, glowering on the left flank--or was it the right flank? Joe Curran, clearly on the red left, threatened to tie up merchant shipping on June 15 by calling out the maritime unions.

Harry Truman could not stand much more of the kind of humiliation he had suffered at the hands of Lewis and the brotherhoods' Alexander Whitney and Alvanley Johnston. The nation's economy could not stand many more such paralyzing strikes. Harry Truman and Congress had let things drift so far that there was nothing to do but drop a legislative atomic bomb.

A little more than 100 minutes after he spoke to a joint session of Congress (see below), the House wildly debated and overwhelmingly passed (306-to-13) Mr. Truman's "emergency expedients."

What did the bill provide?

If the President decides it is "vitally necessary to the maintenance of the national economy" to keep any strife-harassed industry running, he could proclaim a national emergency, give both sides 48 hours to end the lockout or strike, order labor leaders to send their men back to work.

Spasms of Rage. Failure on the part of employers or labor bosses to comply with these orders would mean up to $5,000 in fines, up to one year imprisonment, or both. Workers who failed to go back immediately would lose their jobs and all their seniority rights. And if they balked as long as 24 hours they could be drafted into the Army. All net profits made under Government operation would go into the U.S. Treasury. Harry Truman, well aware of the scope of the bill, carefully put a limit on it: six months after the officially proclaimed end of the war.

The bill might have been law before John Lewis went to bed that night if various Senators, for various reasons, had not forced postponement of debate. This week, with tempers somewhat cooled, the Senate considered it. In advance of debate, many Senators, both Democratic and Republican, were opposed--especially to the draft provisions.

Many in the nation had second thoughts. Union labor, as expected, erupted in violent outbursts. Joe Curran vowed he would strike anyway; other unionists used their angriest epithet--"strikebreaker"--against the President.

Would the law, if passed, stop strikes? The Smith-Connally Act, also passed in a spasm of congressional rage, had simply multiplied and complicated the very troubles it sought to cure.

The new stopgap legislation raised profound moral questions. Thoughtful citizens, well aware of the crisis, and generally applauding the President, would nevertheless wonder afterwards about the ethics of such atomic legislation.

Mr. Truman had not won the war. He had merely won a battle. The U.S. still had a rendezvous with the labor question.

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